March Madness  

Latest Posts  |  Archive  | 

Another Contender for Best Game of the Tourney

by Jonah Keri
Sat, 22 Mar 2008 at 10:04 PM

Print

Send

RSS

Share:

	Matt Sayles/AP Stanford teammates Brook Lopez, Fred Washington, and a third teammate embrace after defeating Marquette in overtime tonight by a score of 82-81.

Stanford prevailed 82-81, though if basketball were counted in fractions, it would've been closer than that. The Cardinal jumped out to an early lead in this one, only to have Marquette's explosive three-guard combination of Dominic James, Wesley Matthews, and Jerel McNeal (more on him in a minute) come right back. Up one in the latter stages of the first half, the Stanford coach, Trent Johnson, got whistled for two straight technical fouls, leaving the Cardinal without their head man and giving the Eagles valuable free points.

Up six at halftime, the most notable stat was Marquette's 23-15 rebounding edge, a shocker given Stanford's imposing Lopez twins, Brook and Robin. The Cardinal would come back to tie it, as the Lopezes scored 13 of Stanford's first 19 second-half points and forced Marquette into several tough, contested shots that the Eagles couldn't convert. But after Stanford grabbed a six-point lead, fill-in head coach Doug Oliver tried to give the Lopezes a rest. That allowed Marquette to storm back with seven straight points, all courtesy of offensive rebounds by Marquette's high-jumping guards. Even when the twins returned, James, Matthews, and McNeal drove hard to the rim and scored repeatedly, as the Eagles' big men forced Brook and Robin away from the rim.

Back and forth the game went in that vein, with Marquette's guards scoring on nearly every possession, only to have Brook Lopez respond with a post-up move and bucket on the right block. McNeal, averaging 21 points a game over his last six contests, started taking over, grabbing steals, blocking an Anthony Goods three-point try late in the game, and scoring almost every time he touched it. But Robin Lopez hit one of two free throws with less than 10 seconds left, sending the game to overtime.

These are my (partial) notes from that point on:

--

McNeal with the steal after Marq misses, then hits the THREE!!!

Giving Brook Lopez the post, easy layup again, 75-74 Stanford

McNeal another 3!!! (has 27)

Johnson a 3! Stanford by 1

James hits 1 of 2 to tie it

Brook Lopez gets it again, then goes left to score…80-78 Stanford (only 2 pts in first half for Lopez, 26 since then)

McNeal goes around two screens, another THREE!!!!! WOW!!!! 81-80 Marq

Lopez finally misses, McNeal the rebound

McNeal misses LONG three (bad shot), B. Lopez rebounds

Brook misses, Robin misses tip

Marq up 1 with 1 min left

McNeal…7 pts 3/6 first half; 23 pts 10/17 in 2nd half/OT

McNeal misses, but gets own rebound! Milk clock…

Timeout Marq

McNeal misses!

Stanford…timeout

Lob to Lopez from Johnson on right block again…scores again!!!

82-81, Stanford wins!

--

Thirty points for Brook, 18 for Robin, 30 for McNeal. Euphoria for college hoops fans on a Saturday night.

Meanwhile, Kansas routed UNLV (no surprise), while Washington State pounded Notre Dame 61-41. That score was a big surprise. Used to scoring in the 80s, the Irish couldn't do anything against the stiff Cougars defense. Wazzou hounded Notre Dame star Luke Harangody into 3 for 17 shooting and the Irish shot less than 25% for the game. Didn't expect Harangody to struggle that much, though we did predict that the Wazzou coach, Tony Bennett, would gameplan well against Notre Dame and pull out a win.

The Cougars might not be able to overcome all of North Carolina's athletes in a Sweet 16 match-up. But it says here that Washington State's clamp-down defense and hyper-efficient offense (think Wisconsin, but guard-oriented) will still make the Tar Heels look bad at times should they meet on Thursday.

March Madness Homepage